It is true that it's so difficult to overcome a television hit, and
this case was no exception to the rule, rather just the opposite. It
took five years for Lynda Carter
to star in another series of her own. It was "Partners
in Crime", a weak crime series
which wasn't the perfect vehicle neither for Lynda nor for any other
star.

The short-lived series only lasted 12
episodes and Lynda co-starred with
her friend Loni Anderson.
Lynda Carter played a rich professional photographer named Carole
Stanwyck. Loni Anderson played the
street-wise but equally glamorous Sydney Kovak,
an effervescent blonde who plays the bass in a jazz band.

What
do they have in common? Well, their ex-husband, Raymond
Caulfield, a San Francisco private
eye. Caulfield has been murdered and left them 50/50 shares of his
Frisco detective agency and his mansion.
Inexplicably the girls team up to play detective and their first case
it's to try to find out who's the killer of their ex-hubby. This way
they end-up as amateur partners of the detective agency.

Oftenly
they count with the help of Lieutenant Ed
Vronsky (Leo Rossi) from the San
Francisco Police Department. Walter
Olkewicz plays Harmon
Shain, the girls' assistant at the
Agency and the mansion, and Eileen Heckart
plays Jeanine,
Caulfield's mother who also likes to play amateur detective.

Carole
Stanwyck (Lynda Carter) is a beautiful brunette who measures 38-25-37.
She was a debutante and a teabag heiress from New York who lost her
money through bad investments. She now works as a freelance
photographer. Carole wears a size medium dress, and her license plate
reads IFL 896. She lives at 654 Veronna Drive.

Sydney Kovak (Loni
Anderson) is a stunning blonde ("not my natural color") who measures
36-24-36. She grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco where
she learned all the tricks of the trade-from lock picking to picking
pockets. She is now an aspiring but struggling musician (bass fiddle)
who lives at 921 Hayworth Street (Apartment 3C). Sydney wears a size
small dress, and her car license plate reads IPCE 467. She has a fake
plaque that says SYDNEY KOVAK OF THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(her dream is to play with the renowned orchestra). Sydney has been
studying the bass for 20 years and has played professionally for 15.

Although strangers, Carole and Sydney have one thing in common: they
were both married to Raymond Dashell Caulfield, a private detective
who operates the Caulfield Detective Agency in
San Francisco (also called the Raymond Dashell Caulfield Detective
Agency). Carole was married to Raymond for three years, 1972-75, and
was owed $62,000 in back alimony. Sydney was Raymond's second wife,
1976-78, and was owed $56,000 in back alimony. Ray proposed to both at
the Top of the Mark Restaurant.

When Ray is killed during a case, Carole and Sydney inherit both his
mansion and the detective agency. They solve Ray's murder and become
"Partners in Crime" when they decide to remain a team and work as
detectives.

Jeanine Caulfield (Eileen Heckart) is Ray's mother and Carole and
Sydney's mutual mother-in-law. She is the unpublished author of 57
books and the owner of the Partners in Crime Book Store (later called
Jeanine's Book Store). She lives in the mansion with Carole and
Sydney. Harvey Shain (Walter Olkewicz) is their housekeeper (his claim
to fame is that he met Rock Hudson on Fisherman's Wharf).

Lynda
Carter and Loni Anderson are guilty as charged in "Partners In Crime" -
no matter the charge.

In reality, though,
they're probably innocent victims of the creators and writers of the
preem of what promises to be a very short series see credits for the
master culprits.

In the drama, the pair are partners in a detective agency inherited from
a former husband - he had been married to both at different times. In
their first case they were hired to protect a rock singer from a fan who
had been following the star from city to city, always wearing a white
suit and carrying a kind of menace at all times.

The rock star was played by Vanessa Williams - more famous as a Miss
America who was dethroned and is now seeking a career in acting. She
managed to read her lines, which were kept to an uncomplicated few, and
sang one song to a steady rock beat. No great talent was uncovered -
here - but she could improve with more work and confidence.

She was only a little less smooth than Carter, the embodiment of "Wonder
Woman" in a previous TV life and who plays a school marmish foil to the
dizzy blond persona of partner Loni Anderson. The latter is the only one
in the proceedings who brought any life or sense of fun to the entire
hour.

Leo Rossi, as a real policeman, has apparently been penciled in as aid
and comfort to the women and to provide some sexual tension as he pants
for dates with Anderson. But in the first episode he failed to strike
any sparks as a character or suitor. Another potential regular was
Walter Olkewicz as Shain, a weak mind in a strong body type who might be
useful to protect his women in later episodes, although he did little
more than answer the doorbell in the first go-round.

The plot of the opener was improbable - not that such is always a
handicap in this kind of cartoon situation. The real problem is that
Carter and Anderson fail to work off each other as was probably planned.
The main failure was that Carter was not given enough character to
bounce off the street-wise Anderson character.

Production was stet fast for this type of show, but credit must be given
for the avoidance of car chases in the first one. One suspects that now
that America has seen Williams on TV, there will be little viewer
interest in future episodes of "P In C." - Fob.